Sunderland's Championship promotion rivals reveal £21m losses with owner 'playing poker', according to expert

Sunderland's promotion rivals in the Championship Hull City have posted an operating loss of £21million for 2022-23.

That figure is up by 162 per cent following a massive investment by the club's owner Acun Ilicali. Hull City's revenue has increased to £18million while matchday revenue has also increased by 12 per cent to £6million.

Hull City's wage bill, though, has gone up a whopping 86 per cent to just under £24million, which works out as a rise of 162 per cent.

That means that The Tigers, who are competing with Sunderland for a play-off spot currently, will have a wage bill that will likely way outstrip that of the Black Cats under Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.

Hull's accounts mean that the club is losing approximately £396,000 per week and are hugely reliant on the help of Ilicali to stay afloat.

Football finance expert, Kieran Maguire, spoke to Hull Live to deliver his verdict on Hull City's recent accounts and stated that if their owners were playing poker, that they were now all in on promotion to the Premier League from the Championship this season.

"I think the good news from Hull City's point of view is that revenue is up," Maguire told Hull Live. "It appears that the new owner has links and is wanting to expand the ability of the club to generate revenues with tie-ups and sponsors and corporate deals, some of which will be based back in Turkiye.

"I think what will shock and surprise people is the 86 per cent increase in wages. Clearly, again, the owner is ambitious and he wants Hull City to be competing for play-off places getting promotion back to the Premier League. And that's a very expensive business.

"So we've seen that both in terms of the higher wages, the fact that the club has spent more on transfers than it has done in recent years. Clearly, that has an impact and results in losses. I think losses will surprise people, but the sale of the player (Keane Lewis-Potter) to Brentford has offset some of that.

"And we've also of course seen the owner put in substantial money in the form of loans, so that's where we are, I believe and you have to excuse me here that my knowledge of Championship transfer dealings is a bit sketchy, but from what I've heard from other executives in the Championship, I think there were one or two eyebrows raised in relation to Hull's recruitment in January.

"Clearly, they are ambitious and that's ok, but then you've got the spectre of the PSR rules and the losses of £39million spread over three years, so if they don't go up, it could be that we might need a bit of a reset this summer or probably the sale of one or two of the most attractive players.

"The owner in my view, has gone for it, has decided to effectively, if you're playing poker has effectively gone all in, in respect of investing this season and if that's successful, absolutely fantastic. If it's not, then you have to adjust your finances accordingly."